Have you ever wondered just how big space really is? It’s huge. In fact, it’s astronomical!
The Colorado Scale Model Solar System depicts the Sun, the planets, and the distances between them all on the same scale of 1 to 10 billion. That is, the real objects and distances are 10 billion times larger than the objects and distances in the model.
On this scale, Sun is about the size of a large grapefruit, while Earth is the size of the ball point in a pen. It’s 15 big steps from the Sun to Earth, about 75 yards to marble-size Jupiter, and less than a half-mile walk to Pluto, the most distant object shown in the model.
Available in iOS only. Android version coming soon.
Wanderers CU is a responsive sound experience delivered via a mobile app that responds to the visitor’s movement as sensed by GPS. A complement to the Colorado Scale Model Solar System represented by plaques that extend from the Fiske Planetarium to Colorado Boulevard on the CU Boulder campus, Wanderers CU offers another mode of experiencing this model where visitors are free to explore the sonic, temporal and spatial dynamics of our Solar System as a responsive soundscape that extends in all directions from the Sun, located in front of the Fiske Planetarium.
Wanderers CU invites the mobile listener to explore a sonification of the Solar System in which the relative mass and orbital period of the planets in our Solar System are expressed sonically, with each celestial body having its own “soundprint”. As the mobile listener wanders, and the sonified celestial bodies move at their relative orbital speeds, the participant hears a dynamic soundscape where the volume and direction of the sounds changes depending on the participant’s position and perspective. Participants may toggle sounds on/off using the right menu, and using the slider tools (bottom left icon) may alter parameters of the sonification including: speed of orbit, audio range: radius within which sounds can be heard, sound palette used, and heading.
Visit the CU in Space exhibit at the CU Heritage Center located in Old Main.